MICHAEL Clarke is poised to accept a lucrative pay day in this year's Indian Premier League only weeks before Australia's Ashes campaign begins in England.

The Australian captain is set to feature in the seven-week tournament in April and May after being listed in the IPL's February 3 auction to be held in Chennai.

His manager, James Erskine, said on Wednesday it was likely Clarke would play in the world's richest Twenty20 competition. ''It's not 100 per cent yet, but it's a possibility,'' Erskine said. ''I think that's what he's thinking.''

The IPL is a potential spanner in the works for Australian team management, which is busy planning its assault on India next month and then England.

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The IPL tournament starts on April 3 - only a week after the fourth Test against India winds up in Delhi - and the IPL final on May 26 falls 13 days before Australia starts its pre-Ashes campaign in England at the ICC Champions Trophy.

The first Test, at Trent Bridge, starts on July 10.

Clarke, the world's most prolific batsman, is paramount to Australia's prospects in the Ashes, but while the runs have continued to flow from his bat at record-breaking levels this summer, his fitness has been a concern.

His extensive time in the middle left him battling continued hamstring soreness and he withdrew from Wednesday's fifth one-dayer against Sri Lanka with a twisted ankle. If he does not use the IPL window to rest, he stands to have almost no time off between now and the conclusion of the tour of England - the first leg of back-to-back Ashes series this year.

Clarke made his IPL debut last year on a one-year contract with Pune Warriors.

Cricket Australia is unable to prevent players appearing in the IPL as it falls during an official ''leave'' period. Other Ashes candidates with existing IPL deals and likely to play in the tournament include Shane Watson, Matthew Wade, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson.

But CA will be delighted that fast bowler Mitchell Starc has turned down offers of up to $1 million in an effort to be fresh for the five-Test tour of England.

The player of the tournament with the title-winning Sydney Sixers at the Twenty20 Champions League in South Africa last October, Starc is considered hot property by IPL franchises and his sparkling form with the bat has only increased his appeal.

It is believed he could have earned between $750,000 and $1 million if he had entered the IPL auction, with two franchises in particular understood to have been eager to secure the paceman.

There has been continued interest in Starc in the lead-up to the auction but he has knocked back the offers because of the cluttered schedule, planning instead to join the IPL next year.

''Obviously, after the Champions League that [the Sixers] won, Mitch became hot property,'' Starc's manager, Andrew Fraser said. ''We sat down and spoke about it and agreed that in the long-term interests of his career it was best not to play.

''His body needs a rest, and if he takes that four to six weeks off and has a rest, then it's going to make him really fresh for [the England] tour. If he doesn't take a rest, he's pretty well not going to have had a break for two years. It wasn't a hard decision.''

Amid concern over injuries and CA's handling of players, Starc has been the high-performance team's best example of success. He has performed well in all three formats for his country since his Test debut against New Zealand in Brisbane in December 2011.